Students inspired Southwestern Michigan College Educational Talent Search’s new Science Fair Camp July 8-12 for grades 6-12.

“We got the idea for this camp from a panel of our high-school students,” ETS Director Bethani Eichel said. “In our conversations, we kept hearing students say they wanted to go into science, but were not sure what career specifically. We hope a camp like this will allow students to explore science fields in a different way.”

Judges Dowagiac Middle School Principal Dr. Sean Wightman, DMS science teacher Traci Wightman and Cassopolis science teacher Jennifer Bloss awarded blue ribbons for first place to Mackenzie Stewart and Joel Russell Jr. of Edwardsburg for Bubbly Alien World.

Edwardsburg junior Camile Ritter, who won a red ribbon for Too Sweet, measuring sugar in popular drinks, was more in her element last summer at entrepreneur camp, since she wants to study business and culinary arts, then open a café.

Edible Worms by Dowagiac freshmen Savannah Kurzhal and Kirsten Smith captured white ribbons for third.

Participants also included: Cassopolis, Waylon Yakel, Jenna Lemon, Gianna Garibaldi, Jayden Pflug, Krista Blanchard, Miryrikal Johnson, Grayson Wood; Dowagiac, Melissa Vandenburg, Isabella File, Corbin Race, Drew Ferrier, Cameron Hammond, Matthew Lino, Abigail Ventura-Morales, Emmalyn Taylor, Prisila Manzano-Lorenzo, Charlie Spivey, Ava Younger, Payton Hemminger; Edwardsburg, Camden Foreman, Aidan Knepple, Hayden Kitch; and Marcellus, Serenity Singleton. Singleton, a sophomore, met her eighth grade partner, File, at entrepreneur camp last summer.

Presenters also discussed their projects with President Dr. Joe Odenwald; Dean Dr. Keith Howell, former Math/Science Department chairman; and former ETS director Maria Kulka.

Monday’s introduction to the six-part scientific method of a question to solve, research, formulating a hypothesis, experimentation with variables to confirm or disprove the hypothesis, step-by-step directions detailing the testing process and a conclusion summarizing results was taught by 13-year Dowagiac and Cassopolis middle school science teacher Amanda Solloway.

Solloway was joined Tuesday by her mentor, Dr. Yan Lu, Department of Biological Science professor at Western Michigan University. Lu earned her doctorate in botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005.

Lu serves as principal investigator of a National Science Foundation-funded Research Experiences for Teachers in the Biology of Plants, Animals, Microorganisms and their Environments (BIORETS) program at WMU.

Solloway researched “Toxicity of Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFAS) on Plant Growth and Development” with Yu two summers ago as part of this seven-week summer professional development program.

Lu uses genetic, genomic, biochemical and physiological approaches to understand photosynthesis, photosynthetic complexes and how plants interact with their environments.

Solloway’s research was inspired by excessive amounts of PFAS found in Parchment’s water system in 2018.

The synthetic material used for firefighting foam, nonstick cookware, fa